22 revolver, what the &%^$ is it?

[Jamka]

Dwight drew my attention to this thread. Sorry, but I cannot tell more about the origins of this small pistol - only that it is of German origin, produced after 1893, and probably before 1911.
Fact is, that it has a German commercial proof stamp that was in use during that era. The German Proof Law of 1891 regulated the mandatory test and control of all arms that were destined to the commercial market, including the arms for export. The law came into force in 1893.

Normally we would find at least two stamps on small arms: Crown/B and Crown/U. (The B stands for 'Beschuss' = test firing with a overloaded cartridge, the U stands for 'Untersuchung' = inspection after the pressure proof).
On this little pistol there is not enough space available to stamp both proof marks on the 'breechblock'. This was foreseen in the law; in that case two Crowns above a 'U' had the same value as C/B + C/U. This combination is rather rare, it has been found only on some early pistols from C. Collath & S�¶hne. But I doubt that this very simple design was made by this firm.

The Crown/V Vlim has mentioned above (V stands for Vorrat = weapons existing before 1893, not tested and stamped as such) would have had only one Crown.

Please remember that this kind of little cheap pistols was made around 1900 by hundreds of small 'home - style' armorers. Li�©ge in Belgium, and Suhl in Germany were the cities where most of them were concentrated.